THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY November 2, 1957

Book Review The Basis of Despotism Oriental Despotism—A Comparative Study of Total Power by Karl A Wittfogel. Yale University Press, 1957. Pp XDC + 556. Price $7.50 or Ra 37.50. D D Kosambi THE contents of this Impressive, The author, so we are told, ex- settlements located on the coast of beautifully printed and well got perienced the despotism of absolute Thana, south of modern Bombay". up publication with its usual para­ total power at first hand in one of The Manigramam, the Shreni, or phernalia of current American scho­ Hitler's concentration camps. Yett the Vira-Vanunja trading caste In larship leave very much to be de­ there is no analysis of that parti­ India, and the gigantic and really sired. Perhaps the most extra­ cular experience. On pages 143 to powerful Hong merchants' organi­ ordinary feature of this book (and 149, we find that terror and torture sations in China are not allowed to many others like it) Is the pro- are prominent features of oriental disturb the reader's consciousness foundly meaningless terminology, despotism. "It was left to the The Arthaahustra Is quoted (with­ such as the following; hydraulic masters of the Communist appa­ out understanding) several times, ; agromanagerial ;' ratus to reverse the humaniz­ but nothing whatever has been said agrobureaucratic and agrodespotic ing trend and to reintroduce the of the benign rule of Ashoka, just regimes. One can understand the systematic infliction of physical pain after the Arthashastra, Why this function of the fluid in the working for the purpose of extracting 'con­ sudden reversal of despotism in thai of a hydraulic press, a hydraulic lift, fessions' " (p 147). Was there no brief interval of not more than 50 or a hydraulic ram. How it operates torture worth the mention in any years, without any corresponding in a 'hydraulic' society—apart from of the Nazi judicial procedure and" change in Indian hydraulics? Why the fact that human life cannot 'confessions' obtained in Fascist is no mention made of the Chinese exist without water, and that water Italy and Germany, or for that travellers' emphatic account that is not uniformly distributed upon matter third degree methods employ­ under the Guptas (4-5th centuries) the earth's surface—Is not made ed elsewhere (including the 'benign' and Harsha (early 7th century) clear by all the pseudo-scientific rule of the British in India)? The penal legislation was extremely verbiage of the initial chapter. The reason for this rather lopsided em­ mild, labour was not dragooned and one clear statement is that hydrau­ phasis is very simple. The clear and no torture used in the examinations lic states sadly damage the rights imminent danger against which the of witnesses? In a study of 'Ori­ of private property—the ultimate book warns is that of . ental despotism', why is it essential and unforgivable sin. 'Oriental Apparently, Communism is the most to omit periods when the rule struck despotism', as if it were plague or dangerous form of Oriental ­ all observers as being singularly cholera, succeeded in Infecting ism and total power. Marx, even kindly and unoppressive not only in Rome without benefit of hydraulics. more Engels and Lenin, (so the form, but In fact? How does it The whole performance Is reminis­ author tells us) used all their in­ happen that the laws of the Koman cent of Lewis Carroll's Jabber- tellectual power to disguise the fact .Twelve Tables and the first A the wocky, the more surprising because that they were really introducing hian code were far more draconlc semantics Is so fashionable in the Oriental despotism into the West. thnn under such 'despots', if not USA. It is, therefore, not surprising that because of the right of private pro­ The word 'Oriental' Is sometimes the Chinese, in trying to introduce perty first showing its teeth and used as synonymous with 'Asiatic', Western civilization, mistakenly claws? though frequent references to , adopted the Soviet system which On page 141, we find the follow­ Mexico, and Peru show that the was really their own Oriental des­ ing: "Lenin defined the geographic limits are not essential. potism imposed upon .Russia by of the proletariat—which he held to Nero and Caligula were certainly Lenin! Nehru's India seems (to the be the heart of the Soviet regime more powerful and more despotic author) naively ambivalent. This as 'a power not limited by any than any oriental despot; but neither means that the evil present in the laws'. Like other utterances of they nor Tiberius, with his unspeak­ communist danger has not suffi­ Lenin, this formula combines an able vice and cruelty appear In the ciently impressed itself upon the impressive half-truth with import­ book. Our present author goes so far Indian mind. ant fallacies." The half-truths and also as hydraulic-oriental despotism. The author has hardly considered fallacies derive only from Professor It was, apparently, Introduced by the monsoon worth mentioning as Wittfogel. Lenin was first defining Augustus in Rome, much in the fundamental in Indian 'hydraulic' dictatorship as such and not mere­ same way as smallpox was intro­ society; or, for that matter, caste— ly that of the proletariat. ­ duced by the Spaniards Into Ameri­ which all foreigners from the clas­ ship is precisely rule not bounded ca, and syphilis by the Portuguese sical period to the present day seem by law; and this definition goes back into India. There is no discussion to regard as a peculiar and very im­ to the days of the Roman of one undisputably Oriental book portant feature of Indian society. when, In times of emergency, the which praised despots provided they Thana Is mentioned twice but only people and senate agreed to set up did not follow the wrong cult,, and because of a worthless fourth cen­ a dictator whose orders would be which gained tremendous autllority tury Nepali legend about its mer­ obeyed for a specified period without as well as circulation In the West chant guild. Sopara is, in the question as to their legality. Such —the Old Testament. author's geography, "one of several dictatorship cannot possibly be 1417

THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY November 2, 1957 written off as Oriental infection of to deprive them. The Athenian lengths. Cicero's oration against the truly unhydraulle Roman mind. naval commander in the same war, Verres shows how a patrician could Similarly, on page 447: "The Themistocles, had similar designs strip a province unhindered. The Second Industrial , which at Athens, but escaped in time to case was won by the provincials, we are now experiencing, is per­ serve the Persian despot as provin­ without restitution of the loot or petuating the principle of a multi- cial governor, without any further punishment for Verres. That model centered society through large qualms about the loss of his ineff­ lover of liberty, Brutus, tanned bureaucratized complexes that mu­ able liberty. money to a tributary Asian at. tually—and laterally—check each What is the tap-root of despotism? 48 per cent annually compound Interest. He asked Cicero to call other: most importantly( Big Gov­ Marx noted that the Asian states ernment, Big Business, Big Agri­ performed a considerable economic out thu nearest Roman army, to culture, and Big Labour, But the function In development and con­ collect payment on the debt. The destruction of one major nongovern­ trol of irrigation; but that the solid emperors, with their paid civil ser­ mental complex may bring about foundation of Asiatic despotism vice of freemen and slavey, at least the downfall of others. Under Fas­ was furnished by the passive, un­ restricted the robbery to loss in cism and National , the resisting stratum of producers In tolerable limits; they held the bal­ liquidation of Big Labour so streng­ the virtually self-contained, stag- ance of power between looter and thened Big that event­ nant villages, whose produce did not looted. The progressive deification ually Big Business and Big Agri­ become a commodity till It reached of the Roman emperors had its culture were also threatened. And the hands of the state. There is basis in the need to minimize the in Soviet Russia the liquidation of no esoteric doctrine here about hy­ use of force, always a costly pro­ Big Business and Big Agriculture draulics and ''. It might be positi onf during expropriation. The quickly enabled Big Government suggested that the passive, unresist­ last remnants of Republican pret­ to subdue labour." This might ralfle ing stratum of Indian peasants in ence were dropped by the emperor a dangerous question: the respon­ Latin America has something to do. Diocletian because the structure of sibility of Big Business and Big with the constant resurgence of the state no longer corresponded to Agriculture in helping sup­ tyrannical dictator-presidents like 'such fictions. The 'Roman' legions press Big Labour, The author hast­ TruJillo. If such a despot has any ha-d to be recruited primarily from ens to bypass it in a footnote: "Mos­ other prop, it Is neither the water barbarians near the frontiers. The cow's role in Hitler's rise to power supply, nor communist Instigation, Italian heartland whose free, small­ is a similarly neglected Issue". No but some foreign company capita­ holding, peasant citizenry had been' mention of Thyssen or Krupp; nor lized in the land of free enterprise eaten up by the latifundta of the of the unfailing Western support of and liberty for the stockholders. patricians could supply neither sol- diers nor officers. Hitler almost to the beginning of "The history of hydraulic society", World War II. says Wlttfogel on p 329. "suggests What makes despotism Inevita­ ble is not Orientalism, nor hydrau­ It is depressing to note that Hit­ that the class struggle, far from being a chronic disease of.all man­ lics, but. the particular type of pro­ ler, after all, has scored a victory duction : how much surplus Is if a graduate of his concentration kind, is the luxury of multtcentered and open .". This is the forcibly expropriated by the state camps imbibed enough of the for its own use and that, of the 'master-race' philosophy to damn same sort of nonsense that derides class it mainly serves. Despotism so widespread a social pheno­ socialism because it Is supposed to would have no function in a pri­ menon aa 'Oriental'. This parallels deprive the workers of their most the extraordinarily weak hold upon precious possession, the right to mitive tribal society; but should a the ideal of pure liberty that the strike, which Is far more important tribe reach a certain level of deve­ Greeks themselves manifested dur­ than a living wage or control of lopment, a cruel despot like the ing their brief period of glory. They the state. Yet, the painful maxim, Zulu Chaka seems a natural might deride the Persians for not "Better the tyranny of one than the phenomenon. Even so, his cruel­ having tasted the Joy of sweet tyranny of the many", goes far ties as reported by unsympathetic liberty, but the book fails to men­ back Into Greek antiquity. Despot­ foreigners who wanted to justify tion what the Athenians did to ruin ism is clear evidence of some acute intervention and conquest do not the freedom of Melos, and what internal struggle. By formal out­ match the cold, treacherous malice happened to the liberty of Plataea ward submission to the absolute of the Roman Republic towards at Greek hands, in the Peloponne- authority of the state, or of a des­ any opposition, nor the Spartan sian War. Mllitiades, a private pot—raised, if necessary, to the level massacre of Nikias and about citizen of free Athens who had led of a cult—a particular class can 7,000 Athenian prisoners of war his side to victory against the Per­ effectively disguise its own need for, after the battle of Syracuse. Not sians at Marathon, was also the and benefit from, the despotism. the insidious vilencss of Orientals, of the Chersonese; this did The Roman senatorial and eques­ but the need to industrialize at all not diminish 'Byron's poetic admira­ trian orders were based on the pos­ costs in the face of a uniformly tion for both Mllitiades and liberty. session of wealth. The citizen hostile environment explains the Pausanlas, field commander In the whose property assessment fell be­ stresses set up in the first state to Persian war, missed a coup d'etat low the requisite level would lose be ruled by a Communist party— against his own state. He starved the privileged status at the next the USSR. On the other hand, the to death in an unroofed sanctuary census. In the last days of the Re­ despotisms that many lamented at Sparta, ringed in by the very public, the greed of these classes under fascism were engendered by men whom he had led in defence in extracting wealth from the pro­ the unrestrained exercise of the of the liberty of which he then tried vinces had attained Intolerable rights of private property. 1419